By: CE Critic
A Glimmer of Hope for Apple TV Users (Maybe?)
In a move that might just make home theater enthusiasts put down their pitchforks (for now), Apple has confirmed that macOS Sequoia, the latest iteration of its Mac operating system, will include HDMI passthrough for Dolby Atmos. This long-awaited feature allows your Mac to send an unaltered Dolby Atmos bitstream directly to your AV receiver or soundbar, finally letting you hear the full glory of your favorite Atmos-enabled movies and music.
Now, before you start doing a victory lap, let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is just for Macs, folks. The current tvOS 18 beta for Apple TV 4K still doesn't have a peep about passthrough support. But hey, we can hope, right? After all, Apple wouldn't want to upset the entire home theater community by giving Mac users a taste of the good life and leaving Apple TV owners out in the cold.
Why All the Fuss About HDMI Passthrough, Anyway?
For those of you who haven't been following the great Dolby Atmos debate, here's a quick rundown. Apple TV 4K currently decodes Atmos on the device itself and spits it out as Dolby MAT 2.0. This is a fancy way of saying it's a high-bandwidth signal that not all devices can handle. And even if your device can handle it, it might not be able to do it through your TV unless you have a fancy HDMI eARC setup or a TV that can do some on-the-fly transcoding magic.
Image From: support.apple.com
Apple TV 4K connected to a TV and AV Receiver
But that's not all. Many home theater enthusiasts have been clamoring for the ability to play their Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray rips with lossless audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. While Apple TV 4K technically supports these formats (if you're willing to shell out extra for an app like Infuse), the hope is that HDMI passthrough will make it more universally supported. And maybe, just maybe, it could unlock support for Dolby Atmos in TrueHD and DTS:X, two formats that Apple TV 4K currently doesn't support in any way, shape, or form.
Mac Users Rejoice, Apple TV Users... Well, Maybe Later
So, macOS Sequoia is slated to be released this fall as a free upgrade, along with tvOS 18, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and visionOS 2. Mac users will get to enjoy their glorious HDMI passthrough while Apple TV users continue to wait with bated breath for any news on whether this feature will ever make its way to their beloved streaming box.
Screen by: www.macrumors.com
MacRumors article on macOS Sequoia HDMI Passthrough feature
In the meantime, we can all dream of a day when we can finally enjoy the full, unadulterated Dolby Atmos experience on our Apple TVs. And hey, maybe if we all cross our fingers and wish upon a star, Apple will surprise us with a tvOS update that finally gives us what we want. A home theater enthusiast can dream, can't they?